Thursday, July 29, 2010

(born February 11, 1944, in Northampton, UK;died July 29, 2010, in London, UK)

We are also incredibly sadenned to hear the breaking news of the loss of Martin Drew. Martin was the drummer in Ronnie Scott's Quintet 1975-1995 and Oscar Peterson 1974-2004. A tough week all around for the jazz community.

Besides the many albums he recorded with Peterson, I specially treasure the DVD "The Quartet Live" (Oscar, Martin, bassist Dave Young & guitarist Joe Pass) filmed during a superb Tokyo concert on February 28, 1987 @ Kan-I Hoken Hall, co-produced by Hisao Ebine & Masafumi Yamamoto, and released on DVD twelve years later, in 1999, by Columbia/VAM (Video Arts Music).Admiring many drummers, Martin mentions, on his official website, that he considered his main influences to be Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Billy Higgins, Joe Morello, Louis Hayes, Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Vinnie Colaiuta, Mel Lewis and Buddy Rich.

Martin Drew, the world-class British drummer who worked for Ronnie Scott for two decades and Oscar Peterson for three, died yesterday. Doctors at Harefield hospital were unable to save him after he suffered a heart attack at his home in Wembley. He leaves a widow, Tessa, a son, two daughters and three granddaughters.

He was 66 and one of Britain’s most internationally renowned jazz musicians. During a long and glittering career he backed countless American stars at Ronnie Scott’s club, a massive list that included Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon and many more.

Martin was particularly proud of his long association with the Oscar Peterson Trio, working alongside Danish double-bass icon Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen and the great Canadian piano star at the world’s top venues, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, where one of his high-profile sessions with Oscar included the full Count Basie Band.

Born in Northampton, Martin studied with the legendary George Fierstone and turned professional early. His first name gigs were with blind pianist Eddie Thompson’s trio, followed by a quintet with Dick Morrissey, Jim Mullen, John Critchinson and Ron Mathewson, his double-bass partner in Ronnie Scott’s quartets and quintets between 1975 and 1995.

In 2000 he and tenorists Mornington Lockett and Nigel Hitchock formed a Jazz Couriers tribute quintet, playing the music of the original group co-led by Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes. This band reformed in 2003 with vibist Jim Hart replacing Hitchcock and Paul Morgan replacing Andy Cleyndert on double bass alongside Lockett and pianist Steve Melling. “As a drummer there was nobody to touch Martin,” said Andy. “That feeling he had, that groove.”– Jack Massarik

It is with great sadness that Ronnie Scott’s must announce that Chris Dagley, the club’s house drummer for the past four years, has died in a motorcycle accident aged just 38. Chris was an exceptional player, whose vibrant and propulsive style was a feature of his countless appearances at the club, performing regularly in the house band with pianist James Pearson and bass player Sam Burgess. After honing his skills as a member of NYJO, he quickly became a much sought-after session musician who played alongside such acts as varied as Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Golson, Eric Clapton, Take That, Jamiroquai, Van Morrison, Will Young and many, many more.

Simon Cooke, Managing Director of Ronnie Scott’s said, “Chris was a great guy, part of the heart and soul of the club. His contribution and dedication to the continuing musical legacy of Ronnie Scott’s was hugely significant. He was very popular with both the staff and the audiences and his passing is a massive loss to us all. He will be greatly missed by both those who knew him and the legions of musicians whom he inspired through his music. Our deepest condolences go out to his family at this time.”

We are also incredibly sadenned to hear the breaking news of the loss of Martin Drew. Martin was the drummer in Ronnie Scott's Quintet 1975-1995 and Oscar Peterson 1974-2004. A tough week all around for the jazz community.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Recorded in late 1969 at the Associated Recording Studios, in New York, and released in early 1970, Dave Frishberg's debut solo album "Oklahoma Toad" was the fourth LP issued by CTI Records (original catalog number CTI 1004). CTI's head Creed Taylor took the original multi-track tapes (engineered by Warren Schatz & Larry Schnapf) to his longtime collaborator Rudy Van Gelder, who did the mixing and the mastering at his famous Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey.

"After Dave, Margo and I finished recording and mixing, I presented the album to Creed Taylor," says David Rosner, Frishberg's music publisher and the album co-producer. "Creed loved what he heard and agreed to release it on his CTI label - provided he could do some additional recording, re-sequence the tracks and re-mix the album."

Comparing the two different mixes, you may have the false impression that some horn overdubs - by people like Al Cohn & Garnett Brown - were added by Creed at Rudy's. "Creed didn't add the horns. We recorded them at Associated," reveals Rosner. "We - Margo, Dave and I - used them sparingly when we mixed, especially in "Van Lingle Mungo", whereas Creed seemed to have used everything on the tape."

Sales at the time of its original release were disappointing, but both Frishberg (who recorded on the very first LP I ever produced, "Yana Purim," for RCA, on which he played a superb version of Edu Lobo's "Canto Triste") and his CTI album achieved a cult status. Since then, the original pressing of "Oklahoma Toad" became an impossible-to-find collector's item, being reissued on CD only once, on June 15, 1999, and only in Japan, by Vivid Sound Corporation in association with King Records, CTI's distributor in Asia.

Now, on this magical day, July 28, 2010, "Oklahoma Toad" is once again made available in the Japanese market in a limited 2-CD set issue, distributed by Muzak, Inc. (priced at ¥2,800), including a second disc with an alternate mix (actually, the original mix before Van Gelder's magical touch), the original track-sequence and a previously unreleased track from a 1972 session in LA, all remastered by Bernie Becker in 2010 at his studio in Pasadena, California.

The original cover art - signed by one of CTI's first graphic designers, Tony Lane, who also worked on albums by Kathy McCord, Flow and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Stone Flower", before being replaced by Bob Ciano - is reproduced in a mini-LP paper sleeve gatefold cover. Besides the lyrics printed in the liner cover, there's also a booklet with new texts by LA-based jazz writer Bill Reed, producers Rosner & Guryan (printed in both English & Japanese), plus quotes by several Japanese writers.Here's the complete tracklist of the 2-CD set:

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Jazz singer extraordinaire Kendra Shank will be performing at Vitello's (one of LA's best listening rooms for jazz, with excellent food and full bar) this Saturday, July 17, with shows at 8 & 10pm. Details below. "The current tour has been great so far, with a standing "O" in St. Paul & and a rave review (read it here: http://bit.ly/cedRKW)," Kendra tells me.

Friday, July 16, 2010

In a few words: if you like Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay," you'll love Ian Carey's "Contextualizin'". The members of his group are in the top of their games, and when pianist Adam Shulman moves to the Fender Rhodes, his solos give me goose bumps. And what a great sonic quality too, by courtesy of engineer Dan Feiszli, who recorded the whole album in a single day! Besides the fact that Ian Carey belongs to the same "family" of trumpeters like Hubbard, Lew Soloff and Tom Harrell, he's also a great composer. All his originals are outstanding, and he sounds creative even in the rendition of "Just Friends," the only standard in his book. For sure, one of my top choices for 2010!

Ian Carey's 2006 debut, "SINK/SWIM," drew some critical attention to the Oakland-based trumpeter's original music and forward-thinking quintet, but his new recording, "Contextualizin'", is sure to turn heads in the direction of this gifted jazz trumpeter/composer. "Sometime when I was in my twenties," says Carey, now 35, "I realized that there are so many great, amazing players out there that the context in which I do what I'm doing is going to be how I differentiate myself, and for me that's writing my own tunes and doing my own things within them." Carey succedded.

Carey's striking compositions -- and one standard, "Just Friends" -- are performed by the tight group of improvisers with whom he recorded "SINK/SWIM" (also on his own Kabocha label) and has frequently worked in Bay Area club settings for the last six years. Saxophonist and flutist Evan Francis is his fiery front-line partner; Adam Shulman switches between piano and Fender Rhodes (playing with "understated virtuosity," in the leader's words); bassist Fred Randolph and drummer Jon Arkin ground and propel the music.

In the CD notes, Carey describes his realization that "What I played would help shape how I played (and vice versa, as it turned out). A song could be a story in itself, or a vehicle to inspire improvisational storytelling. (And sometimes, when everything is happening just right, it can be both.)" The dropped "g" in the CD's title, Carey adds, "is a play on the high-concept, analytical stuff that people come up with to talk about their music." But when it comes to the music itself, Carey "asks deep musical questions," says composer/educator Bill Kirchner, "and comes up with compelling answers."

Born and raised in a musical family in Binghamton, New York, Ian Carey moved with his family to Folsom, California (near Sacramento) in time for high school, where he was inspired to begin studying jazz trumpet seriously. He studied classical trumpet for two years at the University of Nevada in Reno (also performing with the Reno Philharmonic), then enrolled in the New School in New York City and earned a B.A. in Jazz and Contemporary Music.

At the New School Ian studied trumpet with Cecil Bridgewater, Vincent Penzarella, and Charles Tolliver and composition with Bill Kirchner and Maria Schneider, as well as taking small group classes with Joanne Brackeen, Andrew Cyrille, Billy Harper, and Reggie Workman. He also performed with the likes of Eddie Bert, Rory Stuart, and Ravi Coltrane, and at venues such as the Blue Note and Smalls. Carey led his own Brooklyn-based quartet for several years before moving to San Francisco in 2001.

In addition to leading the quintet heard on "Contextualizin'", Carey has played around the Bay Area with the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, 8 Legged Monster, the Realistic Orchestra, vocalist Betty Fu, and pianists Ben Stolorow and the late B.J. Papa. His main focus, however, has been on composing and performing original music with the quintet. In his CD booklet notes, Carey recalls a meeting with the saxophonist Steve Lacy in which Lacy observed that the trumpet "is a discursive instrument -- you know, it tells a story." With those words in mind, Ian Carey aims to say something with his music. He aims to tell stories.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

(born on July 15, 1932 in São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil;died on July 12, 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil)

Besides having worked as clarinetist, saxophonist, arranger and/or conductor with several acts of different styles - from Radamés Gnatalli to Maysa, from Martinho da Vila to João Donato, from Sergio Mendes' Bossa Rio Sextet to Milton Nascimento, from Rosinha de Valença to Gaudencio Thiago de Mello's Amazon band -, Paulo Moura developed a great career as a leader.

Among his best solo albums are the ones for Oswaldo Cadaxo's Equipe label in the late 60s/early 70s - "Paulo Moura e Quarteto", "Fibra" and "Mensagem", the latter released in the USA on Ray Charles' Tangerine label -, the long-forgotten "Escolha e Dance com Paulo Moura" (a pre-bossa gem recorded in 1958 and released the following year by the Sinter label, now part of the Universal Music Group but never reissued on CD, including songs by João Donato, arrangements by Gaya, Astor, Guio de Morais, Vadico, Nestor Campos and Moura himself), and his all-time masterpiece "Confusão Urbana, Suburbana e Rural" (RCA, 1976), featuring Rosinha de Valença, Toninho Horta, Papão and Wagner Tiso's brilliant scores. The duo sessions with Raphael Rabello and Clara Sverner are also noteworthy.

Itinerary: Sunday, July 11th - Monday July 12th11pm meet at Caramel for a Champagne reception. The theme for the night is Champagne and Cigarettes "Everyone loves a Party Girl" and we're encouraging everyone to dress in their most fabulous classic attire (top hat, upscale clothes, flapper outfits etc). From Caramel we all go to The Bank Nightclub where we have a large section to party all night. All girls in attendance will drink free champagne all night. After, rooms are being booked at Bellagio to stay in bewtween (If you are interested in a room, please let me know) Monday - Everyone is meeting in Bellagio main valet at noon where a Party bus will take the party train from Bellagio to Mirage.

At Mirage , we host the ultimate final birthday blowout at Bare Pool where we are taking the entire upper pool deck. There is an open Bloody Mary bar till 3pm and sponsored cocktails all day for our guests. For Monday, squirt guns, cowboy hats and bedazzled beer bongs are highly encouraged :-). We apologize for your hangover and missed work in advance. Look forward to having you at our party! Please RSVP by replying with the following packages.

1. I'm lame party package (cannot attend)

2. Fine, I'll come to the easier one just cause I feel guilt tripped into it party package (attending Bare Pool only)

3. I'm coming but am to weak to handle a hangover party package (attending The Bank only)

4. Ultimate Party pro package (attending The Bank and Bare Pool)

5. Vegas rockstar party package (attending all th e above, and would like a room please)

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the parties. We hope to see you there!

Matt Bianco return to the Jazz Cafe after a 16 year hiatus with an album launch for their latest release of greatest hits "Sunshine Days". See their unique blend of sophisti-pop-inflected jazz this September at the Jazz Cafe.

Joya Sherrill, Who Sang With Ellington and Goodman, Is Dead at 85by Peter KeepnewsNew York Times, July 8, 2010

Joya Sherrill, who sang with Duke Ellington as a teenager, toured the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman and was one of the first African-American performers to host a children's television show, died on June 28 at her home in Great Neck, N.Y. She was 85.

Her death was confirmed by her son, Richard Guilmenot III, who said she had been suffering from leukemia.

Born in Bayonne, N.J., on Aug. 20, 1924, Joya Sherrill originally aspired to be a writer. While she was still in high school, her father arranged through a mutual friend for her to meet Duke Ellington so she could sing him the lyrics she had written to his theme song, "Take the 'A' Train."Impressed by her performance, he asked her to "keep in touch" because he could "always use a good singer in the band," she recalled in an interview with The New York Times in 1979. "I thought that was just flattery," she said, but six months later he offered to hire her when she finished high school. She joined the band in July 1942.

She left briefly to attend Wilberforce University, but returned in 1944 and remained until 1946, when she left again to marry Richard Guilmenot, a construction superintendent.

Mr. Guilmenot died in 1989. In addition to her son, of Great Neck, she is survived by a daughter, Alice Richelle Guilmenot LeNoir, of Manhattan; a sister, Alice Kinnebrew of Atlanta; and two grandchildren.

Although she left the Ellington band and the road, her son said, Ms. Sherrill never stopped singing. She performed and recorded under her own name and continued to work with Ellington on occasion, most notably on his television special "A Drum Is a Woman" in 1957.

"I never really left the band," she said in 1979. "Duke would call me for jobs once a year at least."In 1962, Ms. Sherrill was the singer in a band assembled by Benny Goodman that performed throughout the Soviet Union. The Goodman tour, sponsored by the State Department, was the first by an American jazz ensemble behind the Iron Curtain.

Ms. Sherrill's rendition of a Russian folk song, "Katyusha," was a regular feature of Goodman's concerts and provoked some controversy. An audience in Georgia hooted its disapproval when she sang it, apparently because she was singing in Russian. The Soviet newspaper Izvestia printed a letter attacking her for singing the song in an "unduly familiar cabaret style."

In 1970, Ms. Sherrill became the host of a children's show on the New York television station WPIX, originally called "Time for Joya" and later revamped to emphasize education and retitled "Joya's Fun School." Although she taped only a few years' worth of original episodes, the show continued to be seen in reruns until 1982.

"Time for Joya" was far from a prime-time network show, but it managed to snag at least one big-name guest: Duke Ellington, who played piano, told stories and joked with the studio audience of youngsters on a memorable episode in 1970. It was one of his last television appearances.

Broadway meets jazz on Scot's singing on "Vibination", his fifth CD within a six year span. More than a great singer, he is a great song stylist.According to Scot, "Vibination is the experience of simultaneously merging life energies to create and joyusly become one."Highlights: "Put On A Happy Face," "Incurably Romantic," "Dream Awhile," "Be Warmer This Winter," the medley of "I Have Dreamed" and the Oscar-winning song "Three Coins In The Fountain," plus two lovely tunes penned by Johnny Mandel with lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman: "Solitary Moon" and "A Waltz From Somewhere."Recorded at (Tony) Bennett Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, featuring Daryl Kojak (piano & musical director), Cameron Brown (acoustic bass), Anthony Pinciotti (drums & percussion), "Sweet" Sue Terry (alto sax, flute & clarinet), Dave Pietro (alto & tenor saxes, clarinet, flute), Dave Samuels (vibes) and Arthur Lipner (vibes, who performs the best instrumental solo on the album on "It Wasn't The Stars That Thrilled Me," evoking memories of the late Milt Jackson.)Deluxe 8-panel digipak cover.

Rating: ***** (5 stars)Here in this blog, back in December 2008, Pablo Held was chosen "Best New Talent of the Year" in the 30th Annual Jazz Station Poll (at that time also published in the Brazilian daily newspaper "Tribuna da Imprensa/Press Tribune") due to his work as pianist & composer on his impressive debut CD as a leader, "Forest of Oblivion." Now, two years later, Held is back with his second album, once again produced by Jason Seizer for Pirouet, and with the same trio mates, Robert Landfermann (bass) & Jonas Burgwinkel (drums).

The impact also is the same I felt after listening to his previous album. Held's talents only grew up and were perfected to an astounding level of creativity & powerful inspiration, making him the best pianist to emerge in the entire European jazz scene since another German genius, Jurgen Friedrich, appeared in 1998 with "Summerflood" (CTI). Maybe not coincidentally, Friedrich now also belongs to the Pirouet cast.

"Music" (50m45s) is the name of Held's new album, and the simple yet meaningful title expresses a self-confidence that Pablo Held has every right to possess. Completely without pretence, and playing with expressive ease, his trio relies completely on the music's inner strength. Music with its own sound and unique atmospheric mood.

Born on December 27th, 1986, Pablo Held has won the first prize at Nordrhein-Westfalen's "Jugend Jazzt" three times - in 1999, 2003, and 2005, the first time as a twelve-year-old! He has played with, among others, the WDR Big Band, Manfred Schoof, Paul Heller, and Niels Klein. Held studied in Cologne with the outstanding German pianist Hubert Nuss. His debut album "Forest of Oblivion" was highly praised by the international press. Now, at 23, he brings out his second CD, "Music" - and that previous remarkable profile is brought into even sharper perspective.

Pablo Held wrote eight of the ten tracks, with the trio reaching its peak on the #9, "Klartraum," that could be titled "A jazz piano trio symphony in 8 minutes and 40 seconds," unifying an indescribable whirlwind of emotions and colors, from Landfermann's arco bass work in the introspective intro till the explosive finale propelled by Burgwinkel. Not to mention Held himself, who brings together the best of Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, and still sounds like his own man. "Nearness," "Log Lady" and the reflective "Desire" are also noteworthy.

In his previous album, Held recreated tunes by jazz masters Wayne Shorter & Tony Williams, and by classical composer Federico Mompou as well. This time he gives new life to Olivier Messiaen's transcendental beauty of "O Sacrum Convivium!" (originally conceived in 1937 as a choral motet) and to Herbie Hancock's tribute to Martin Luther King, "I Have A Dream," written in 1969 for his final Blue Note album ("The Prisoner"). Not coincidently, HH is a soul-brother of both Shorter & Williams, with whom he played for decades, not only in Miles Davis' quintet but also in the all-star VSOP group and several other units. Jonas Burgwinkel's drum work on "I Have A Dream" is quite astonishing, in a fabulous trio interplay.

Official info: "Swing Journal will suspend publication for an undetermined period after the July issue.John Coltrane appeared for the first time in our cover photo in the August issue in 1960. This was soon after the release of the masterpiece album "Giant Steps", and we wrote passionately about a man who would be at the forefront of a new wave of Jazz which emerged in the 60's. A half century has passed since then, and now, what is the shape of the next Jazz and Jazz commentary? These questions are very difficult to answer. Meanwhile, we have to continue to search for ideal Jazz journalism and for new Jazz tide in order to revive our magazine. Lastly, we would like to say how grateful we are to all our readers of Swing Journal over the years."

COVERVictor Wooten -- Known for his solo recordings and tours, and as a member of the supergroups SMV and Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, multi-instrumentalist Victor Wooten has won most every major award given to a bass guitarist. Offering CDs, DVDs, lectures, workshops and camps, as well as his groundbreaking novel The Music Lesson (Berklee Publishing), Wooten is guaranteed to remain a positive force in jazz, blues and beyond.

FEATURESClaudio Roditi -- A 2010 Grammy nominee, Rio-born trumpeter and flugelhornist Roditi brings enormous zest and fire to his playing, integrating post-bop elements and Brazilian rhythmic concepts with ease and lyricism. Roditi's latest release, Simpatico, includes all original compositions written and performed by the veteran master.

Art of the Guitar Tribute -- John Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Duke Robillard play the music of Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and Les Paul, repsectively, on their latest CD projects.

Henry Threadgill -- For more than 40 years, the Chicago-born reeds specialist has ventured repeatedly beyond established frontiers of composition and improvisation. On his long-awaited CD This Takes Us To, Vol 1 (Pi) - his first release in eight years, featuring his acclaimed ensemble Zooid - Threadgill shows no signs of letting up.